West Bengal's Sanjib Mali emerges Fide Rating Chess champion

NAGPUR: Maintaining his unbeaten run, Sanjib Mali reigned supreme in the first All India Below 1600 Fide Rating Chess tournament which concluded at the Hedgewar Hall, Reshimbagh, here on Sunday.
Fifth seed Mali notched up highest 8.5 points from nine rounds to clinch the crown. Mali, who has an Elo rating of 1557, drew with Vangala Prashanth of Telangana in the ninth and final round.After recording eight successive victories it was first draw for Mali.
The top board match lasted for 21 moves.
Vishwanath Kannam of Telangana and Bala Ganeshan of Kerala were tied with eight points each at the end of the third and last day's play.
However, on the basis of better tie-break scores, Vishwanath was declared runner-up, while Ganeshan had to be satisfied with the third spot.
While Vishwanath outwitted Rajat Yadav, Ganeshan got the better of Mayur Kalbande respectively in the final round.
There was an intense fight for the fourth spot as seven players finished with 7.5 points each. Soumen Mondal of West Bengal bagged the fourth position on the basis of better tie-break scores.
Senior BJP leader Dayashankar Tiwari was the chief guest and distributed the prizes. Bhushan Shriwas, organizing chairman and secretary of Kalpana Prakash Welfare Foundation, Sushant Jumde, organizing secretary, Milind Marathe and Sanjay Palaskar, chief arbiter Promodraj Moree were the guests of honour.
Chief arbiter was assisted by deputy chief arbiter Deepak Chavan, Pawan Rathi, Milind Naik, Chinamay Naik, Amit Kumar Temburne, Prayas Ambade, Amit Bhongare and Nikhil Khadse.
RESULTS (Round 9)
Sanjib Mali (8.5) drew with Prashanth Vangala (7.5), Mayur Kalbande (7) lost to Bala Ganeshan (8), Rajat Yadav (7) lost to Vishwanath Kannam (8), Suhrud Sudheer Acharya (7.5) drew with Saikat Nath (7), MS Aanandha Kumar (7) drew with Rahul Yadav (7), Jaiswal Prince (7.5) bt KR Prasath (6.5), Lakshya Hirani (6.5) lost to Soumen Mondal (7.5), Prerak Darvekar (6.5) lost to Arnav Dhoke (7.5), Dhirendra Kumar Das (7.5) bt Amar Jyoti Kakoty (6.5), Sheth Shemal Ketan (7.5) bt Nitin Dnyaneshwar Ramteke (6.5).
FINAL STANDINGS
1 Sanjib Mali (8.5, 55); 2 Vishwanath Kannam (8, 52.5); 3 Bala Ganeshan (8, 49.5); 4 Soumen Mondal (7.5, 51.5); 5 Arnav Dhoke (7.5, 50); 6 Prince Jaiswal (7.5, 48.5); 7 Dhirendra Kumar Das (7.5, 47.5); 8 Suhrud Sudheer Acharya (7.5, 46); 9 Sheth Shemal Ketan (7.5, 45); 10 Vangala Prashanth (7.5, 44.5).